12 Days of Goodies

Jenna is having a fun feature called the 12 Days of Goodies to get some good ideas for Christmas goodies. I'm being featured over there today with my grandma's recipe for Australian Almond Triangles. Head on over to check it out!

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

In all of Eric's spare time (ha!) he's been working on refinishing our kitchen cabinets. I LOVE how they turned out. It was a lot of work for him but he did a great job. He added beadboard to the panels and a piece of trim to finish it, and added crown moulding. Let me remind you of the lovely before:

And here they are now!



There is beadboard on all the doors but it was hard to get a good picture. Oh and out my window you can see the neighbor's beautiful new house color! :) We still need to fix a cabinet door and add two more handles but other than that they are done. One day we will get new countertops and backsplash and new appliances but I love the kitchen a million times more now! Thanks to my wonderful hubby for working so hard on them!

Oregon State Fair!

On Wednesday we took Alivia to the state fair for the first time! Eric and I have gone every year since we've been married so I was excited to continue the tradition with Alivia. It turned a little cold (in the 60s) so we bundled up. Didn't really feel like summer but it was nice that it wasn't blazing hot. Please ignore the cheese in her mouth.

Me and my sweet girl. Yes, the poor thing didn't have any shoes on.


No smiles for daddy ha!

Then Eric and I went on the slingshot. He's been trying for the last five years to get me to go on and this was his lucky year. It was fun but not worth the $60.


Alivia LOVED the petting zoo. The goats were obviously used to getting treats because they would just swarm you as soon as you walked in. Alivia is so used to having the dogs in her face that it didn't bother her at all. This lovely goat tried to eat her sweatshirt and she just pet it.

We had such a fun time and already can't wait for next year!

Chicken Cordon Bleu

I'm linking up with the sweet Kelly for crockpotalooza!

I made this the other night for dinner and it was so good and easy. Even my almost one year old gobbled it down. Anything that she loves is a keeper in my book! This recipe is adapted from Crockpot 365.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breast halves, pounded thin (I used three large Costco sized pieces and sliced them lengthwise)
Enough slices of ham for each piece of chicken
Sliced swiss cheese

For the sauce (I doubled because we like a lot of sauce):

--1 T butter
--3 T flour (I used brown rice flour)
--1/2 cup whole milk
--1/2 cup chicken broth
--1/4 t salt
--1/4 t black pepper

Spray crockpot with cooking spray or olive oil.

Pound chicken breasts flat (or slice lengthwise like I did).

Put a slice of the ham and a slice of the swiss cheese on each piece of chicken breast and roll it up. Put it into the crockpot, seam side down. Continue with the other pieces.

To make the sauce, create a roux with the butter and flour and whisk in the milk, broth and spices. Then pour on top of the chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5. My crockpot gets pretty hot and I put it in at noon on high and it was completely cooked by 5. It was super moist and came apart really easy so it was perfect for a small child to eat.

Enjoy!

Silly Doglet

This picture just makes me laugh. Check Zoey out in the background ha!!

Tired, Tired, Tired

Oh my goodness the last few weeks have been crazy. Eric has been gone two weekends for work, Alivia is getting a molar, and I'm working on weaning her. Lets just say that I'm dead tired by the end of the day. Poor thing is just not herself. But we did get a few smiles out of her!

She's become quite the climber and I turned around this morning to find this.

She looks so pleased with herself. I love this picture.

Alivia's other favorite thing lately is to use Zoey as her pillow. She just lounges on her. Zoey loves it because she thinks she's being pet ha!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, our camera battery is dead so I have just been using my iphone lately.

Hopefully life slows down a bit in the next few weeks. I'm really looking forward to having her weaned so that Eric and I can go away for the night. It's been tough because she doesn't take a bottle so I've never been able to leave for more than 3 hours. But I'm so thankful I was able to meet my goal of nursing her until she was one. Well, I have two weeks left until then but I highly doubt she'll be fully weaned before that.

I think the rest of tonight will be spent catching up on some TV :)

Saturday Morning Scene

I'm linking up with Katie today for Saturday Morning Scene!

I have been absolutely loving my new life planner! It's been so great and I actually feel like I accomplish things throughout my day now.

I'm also fueling up on coffee this morning. The hubs is working so I'm needing all the energy I can get to entertain my very active and easily bored 11 month old.

Blueberry Picking and Grandma and Grandpa's House

Eric had to work today so Alivia and I decided to head down south to visit my parents. I was soooo ready to get out of the house. I've been wanting blueberries so we headed to the blueberry farm to pick some. This is about the worst picture ever (I swear I don't have a roll like it looks like) but it's the only one I have with Livy Lou.

I thought she might like to stroll but that didn't last long before she wanted out.

And no that is not a blanket - it's a thin fabric that is in place of sunscreen. I love it.

I love this picture of Alivia enjoying some blueberries and just smiling at my dad.

After lunch mom and I took Alivia for a walk to check out some garage sales.

Oh how my mother makes me laugh. This bench was just at a random cross walk so of course she had to try it out. We totally have the same weird humor - poor Alivia doesn't stand a chance of being normal.

And then to finish out the day Alivia enjoyed splashing in a little water.

It was so nice to spend the day with my family!

Crazy Days of Summer

Whew the last few weeks have been killer. First Alivia was getting her 8th tooth, then she got sick, then we went camping and now she's going through a growth spurt and is eating like crazy. Add in to the fact that I'm trying to wean her and it's just been very tiring. Not to mention she's into absolutely everything. Things like laundry (too bad she can't help me with it yet ha!) -


And the flowers (she crawled over rocks and stood in them on her bare feet ouch) -

She picked a whole lot of petals off after this picture.

Thankfully we've been getting more smiles in the last few days. As long as I keep her well fed that is. If she's hungry, watch out. I've never heard such a loud scream in all my life.

She might be exhausting but I wouldn't trade her for anything! I'm trying to enjoy these days of summer when we can be outside before the rainy winter comes along.

Anyone have any ideas to help the weaning along? She doesn't take a bottle but she's doing really well with a sippy cup. I'd love any suggestions!

Alivia's 1st Camping Trip AKA Alivia's Last Camping Trip

Over the weekend we attempted to go camping for the first time with Alivia. Let me start off by saying that for the last few months she has finally been sleeping really well at night, but ever since last weekend she's decided to wake up at exactly 2 am screaming and throwing a fit. Basically, she just gets super mad and wants me to nurse her. Sorry sweets but we aren't starting that again. So we've had to just let leave her in her bed or else it is way worse when I go in there. Anyway, so you can see where this is going. Camping + screaming child for the whole world to hear = not so good. I really just wanted to go up for the day but it was Eric's birthday weekend so he won.

The day started out pretty good but the problem was that the drive over ended up being almost four hours by the time we dropped off the dogs at my friend's house. Lets just say that four hours is about three hours to long for Alivia to be in the car. So we had a lot of this:

We decided to stop at Cascadia and get out for a bit and hopefully calm the little turkey down. It's really pretty up there and she loved being outside. Ahh finally a smile.

Well, hello there.

We did finally make it but the night did not go well. She woke up several times screaming and ended up having to sleep with us.

Eric's mom and her boyfriend have a really nice motor home so we spent some time in there Saturday morning letting the kids crawl around and play.

She wasn't too sure of the water and first but she did end up loving it later on.

The best part of Saturday was when Eric's mom kept Alivia for a few hours and we got to go riding on the quad up to the top of a hill that had the best view.


We ended up going home Saturday night instead of torturing ourselves another night. There's no way I'm camping again this year but hopefully next year will be better. I have to admit this made me nervous for our vacation in November. I guess I need to start praying for a good sleeper now!

What a Week

My goodness it has been quite the weekend/week. Alivia was sick the whole weekend with a 102 fever and then it just suddenly went away Sunday night. I was so happy that she seemed to be getting better but she still wasn't herself so I took her in to the doctor yesterday. Looks like it's just a summer virus. She has been the fussiest/clingiest EVER. He said that adults who are getting this say that it gives them a pounding headache. Poor girl. It didn't help that Eric went out of town so we were on our own. Plus I'm trying to get ready for camping this weekend. Ugh! But today was much better and my mom came up to help and play with Alivia.

Eric and Mandy's birthdays are this weekend camping so I made some chocolate peanut butter cupcakes to take. I made an exception to our no processed food for their birthdays. I mean come on, you have to live a little. They look so yummy. They have a peanut butter filling inside that reminds me of a peanut butter ball without the chocolate coating. I might have died and went to heaven.


Then this little miss got into the dogs' water bowl and just went to town splashing. Uh gross but it kept her entertained while I finished dinner.

So I filled up a bowl with some toys and took her outside. Who knew tupperware and water could be so much fun!

I think the water felt good at first but when she was done, she was DONE. I will say this. I have so much admiration for single moms. I honestly don't know how they do it. I'm so exhausted when Eric has to go out of town for one night. I'm very thankful for a husband who is so hands on and works so hard to support his family!

Saturday Morning Scene

It's Saturday so that means linking up with Katie for Saturday Morning Scene!

The poor miss has come down with her first bug. She's been fighting a fever and you know she doesn't feel good when she is cuddly and lays around watching baby einstein. I've never seen her be so content to just be still before. So hopefully with lots of love and rest today she will be feeling better!

Blog Makeover

The wonderful Erin at Designer Blogs just installed my new blog design. I love it!

Shaved Puppies and Kitchen

The dogs finally got their summer shave. I think they are SO cute when they are shaved. Here's Zoey:


And here's the piece of work Sadie with Alivia looking on:


Those dogs have so much hair. I usually need to sweep, vacuum and vacuum the whole house every day to make it feel clean. Hopefully the shaving will help that some. I just love how they look like puppies again when they are shaved.

The other exciting thing that's happening is that Eric is redoing our kitchen cabinets! This is how it looked when we moved in over three years ago.


The only thing we've done so far is paint the walls and trim. Kitchens are just so much work and are so expensive so it's been on the back burner. Hopefully soon we can get the backsplash and new countertops done. Anything will be an improvement from this.

Bye bye, wheat...again.

As I've mentioned before, for the last several months I have cut out wheat (among other things) to help Alivia's acid relflux. Her refux has been gone for a few months now so I thought I could probably let her have some whole wheat bread. So on Saturday I gave her some delicious bread from Great Harvest. She LOVED it. Well, I think she has some sort of intolerance to it after all. It was so heartbreaking. Last night and again today she has had absolutely terrible stomach cramps (at least that's what it seems like) and just screamed and screamed in pain. It was awful. Even with her acid reflux she's never acted like this. She's sleeping peacefully now so hopefully since I'm not giving it to her anymore she'll just go back to normal. My poor babe :( Good thing I have a lot of months under my belt of no wheat!

Homemade Tortillas

Tonight I made tortillas for the first time. Since we are on a real food only challenge I've had to start making pretty much everything from scratch. I didn't buy much processed food to begin with but suddenly when you can't eat anything processed you realize that you do rely on the convenience items like bread. So anyway, I wanted to make fajitas tonight so I made these whole wheat tortillas.


They are definitely not the most beautiful but they were delicious! It made a dozen so I just froze the rest with a piece of wax paper in between each tortilla and then in a gallon size zip lock. They were a little time consuming but I'll definitely make them again. Healthier and cheaper!

10 Months Old!

My little Livy Lou is 10 months old today! How is it possible she is now in double digits??

8 1/2 months was a miracle time for us. All of a sudden she started crawling, her acid reflux disappeared (THANK YOU LORD), and we were finally able to do some sleep training. Up until then because of her acid reflux she just did not sleep. And I seriously mean that she would wake up every 1-2 hours crying and I would have to pick her up, give her some colic calm, and hold her until she went back to sleep. And this was all with her sleeping with us. I swore I would never do that but when you get almost zero sleep you do what you have to do. At it's worst she wouldn't even take naps or go to bed at night without me sleeping with her. Let me tell you, I was getting seriously sick of going to bed at 7 pm. Anyway, all that to say, you can see that it is a true miracle that she is now sleeping like a champ! I am able to put her down awake and she usually sleeps until 6ish and wakes up to eat. Sometimes if we're lucky she'll go back to bed until 7-7:30. Some other things that Alivia has been doing this month are:

She is getting her 8th tooth. We're hoping for a good break before her molars start to come in.

Pulling herself up like a champ and cruising on the furniture.

{Showing off some toofers while climbing up the couch}

Loves her some Baby Einstein - thank goodness because otherwise I don't know how I could get ready in the morning!

Eats all table food - she loves eggs (yolks only) and peaches for breakfast. Sometimes she shares my oatmeal with me. She also loves all meat and pretty much everything actually. The only thing she didn't like was banana but she seems to like it now.

{Enjoying some eggs for breakfast}

She got her first taste of bread and let me tell you, she is just like her mother and loves her carbs.

Waves on command to either hi or bye. She also loves to wave at random people in the store. Also, if anyone makes any sort of eye contact with her she thinks they want to be her best friend and gives them the hugest smile ever.

She LOVES sunglasses or glasses. She tries to swipe them and she's so quick about it.

{Trying on daddy's glasses}

It sounds like she's starting to try and say dog. I'm sure it's because she hears me yelling at our dogs all day long!

She also loves to chase and annoy the dogs. She has also recently started to try and feed them from her high chair. Lovely.

{Chasing after Zoey}

We love you baby girl! You make our life so much better and you are just so fun. We can't imagine life without you!

Saturday Morning Scene

It's time for another Saturday Morning Scene. Yes, I'm a bit late today. But the picture was taken this morning when we went to the Saturday Farmer's Market. Alivia was trying to get her daddy's sunglasses while he was taking the picture (sorry it's so dark). Pictures are getting harder and harder to take with the little miss!

Pool Time FAIL

We've finally been getting some hot weather around here so I thought it would be fun to get out Alivia's little pool. She's always liked the bath so I thought for sure she'd like sitting in the pool water. It started out good. She was having fun climbing all over me trying to get the camera while daddy was blowing up the pool.
Then it was time to get in the water. And this was the best picture I could get ha!

She freaked out before her feet even touched the water??? I don't know if the pool scared her or what. She's been a little cranky lately because she's getting another tooth so maybe that's what the deal was. I love how Sadie is looking on just dying to jump in the water. I guess we'll try again in a few days and she if she likes it any better.